13 held for smoking sheesha

The Islamabad police have launched an operation against sheesha and hookah centres across the federal capital and a total of 13 arrests were made on Thursday.

Sources said that police teams headed by zonal superintendents of police (SP) have started a crackdown on these centres and educational institutions to do away with the menace of sale and use of drugs.

In this regard, the Industrial Area police raided a sheesha centre at I-8 Markaz and arrested 13 people including three women and the owner of the centre.

A case has been registered against the accused under the Smoking Act and the related material has been seized.

He said that the suppliers will be arrested by installing CCTV cameras in canteens of the educational institutions.

He further said that the Islamabad police were also planning to launch an awareness campaign on a large scale to educated the students on the peril of drug use. He said that parents will also be given lectures on the issue to apprise them of the hazardous menace.

People doing businesses near education institutions will be kept under regular surveillance, he said.

According to sources,certain five-star hotels and other restaurants in F-6 also offer sheesha.

Currently, over 3.7 million adults use water pipes (hookah/sheesha) in Pakistan, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) of the health ministry.

Officials of the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICT) said sale of sheesha was prohibited under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002.